


Quintessential Queen Bee: Episode 1, Wordsmith

by Icecreamlover2000



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:24:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icecreamlover2000/pseuds/Icecreamlover2000
Summary: Chloé Bourgeois is Paris' newest hero. With the assistance of Pollen, watch as this jerk slowly turns her life around and becomes a hero people can be proud of.





	Quintessential Queen Bee: Episode 1, Wordsmith

A happy family walks into the alleyway. The city lights silhouette them as they walk. "That movie was super cool, dad!" a young boy says.

"See? I told you The Mark of Zorro was good, Bruce. Your mother and I are just glad to spend time with you, aren't we, Dear?"

"Yes Honey, we..." Her words die in her throat as she sees a dark figure come come out of the shadows. The shine of the gun reflects off of the light of the city. The woman, Martha, grabs her son, and pulls him close.

"Let's start with the woman's pearls," the man says, pointing the gun at scared woman.

"It's going to be alright, Bruce," the woman says to her son.

"Yeah, Bruce, everything is going to be fine," says a unseen feminine voice. The gunman and the family turn around in search of the mysterious voice. What they found was pretty odd, a blond woman in a yellow and black onesie wearing a domino mask crouched on a stack of crates with her hands out ready to pounce. The odd crouching woman leapt from a pair stack of wooden crates towards the family striking a heroic pose. "Fear not citizens, for I shall save you, the Quaint Queen Bee!"

"What? You're real? I thought they were full of shi..." whatever he was going to say was cut off when the young woman uppercutted the man.

"T- Thank you miss," the man says, rushing over to shake her hand.

"Don't mention it, just tell the cops when you see them that you were saved by the Quaint Queen Bee," the girl says with a thoughtful look on her face. "Actually, tell them you were saved by the Queen Bee. I'm still working on the adjective for me. It's really unfair how few adjectives start with Q."

With that done, the girl leaps from the alley to the top of the building. She began to swing from roof to roof. The people below hear a shout of pure joy, "being a superhero rules, woohoo!"

* * *

Making her way through the halls of College Françoise Dupont , Chloe Bourgeois was walking alongside her friend Sabrina.

"I didn't hear from you last night. Did everything turn out alright?" asked the mousy redhead.

"Tck. Everything was fine. I just enjoyed swinging around doing my thing last night," she said flicking her ponytail behind her. "I totally set a new high score last night, six people saved and a family of three all in 2 hours."

"Wow, that's amazing, Chloe. You're getting really good at this."

Chloe smiled to herself as she took in her friend's praise until her mood darkened. "Yeah, but no matter where I go or how long I stay out for I still can't bump into Ladybug or Chat Noir," she huffed. "Your plan for me to find them isn't working."

"I - I'm sorry Chloe. I thought that since superheroes patrol their cities, you were bound to run into them eventually."

"Ugh. Stop your sniveling. I might not have met Ladybug yet, but I'm sure once she hears about all the good I'm doing she'll want to team up together. I just need to get my name out there," she said, as the two walked into their class.

"Well, are you going to go to be free tomorrow?" she asked.

"No, Daddy had an important charity gala and needs me to be a prop for him. We're celebrating all the good work firefighters do." Chloe walked past her desk to a dark-skinned girl talking to another girl. "Hey Alya, you're the local superhero blogger right?"

"Chloe? Why would you care about the Ladyblog?" she asked.

"Oh, no reason in particular," she said, looking down at her nails feigning innocence. "It's just that I heard that there's a new superhero fighting crime in Paris and I thought you might've heard of her. Queen Bee, ring any bells for you?"

"I haven't heard a thing about a new hero showing up," the girl said.

"B-b-but she's been fighting crime for weeks now. She's saved dozens of people," she pled. How could she not have heard about all her good deeds?

"Sorry Chloe, but I've never heard of her. Hey Marinette, have you heard of Queen Bee?" she asked the girl sitting next to her.

"Queen Bee? Nope, I haven't heard of her," the dark haired girl replied. "How do you know about her?"

"Uhh well, I'm a huge fan of Ladybug and superheroes in general. Anyone who's a fan knows who Queen Bee is. I guess I shouldn't have expected a loser like you to know who she is, anyway."

"Well sorry, but next time don't start a conversation with someone and insult them for not knowing about some nobody superhero."

Chloe fumed as the arrogant cow insulted her. "Humph. Whatever, come on Sabrina. Let's take our seats, class is about to start," she said as she stormed off.

* * *

The mayor's residence was exceptional. Decadence flowed from the tops of the three layer chandelier to the plush velvet carpet. Servers moved quickly replacing dishes and bringing new ones, as Chloe and her father ate.

"Chloe dear, what's wrong? You look upset. What's the matter?" he asked.

"No, Daddy, everything's fine," she said as she played with her food. She paused, and with a bit of hesitation, she asked, "hey dad, you've heard of Queen Bee, right?"

"Why of course! As mayor I get a report about all superhero activity every day," he said with an air of pride in his voice.

"Really? That's great! Then, you know all about Queen Bee?" she said. Finally! I should've known Daddy would know all about the good I've been doing. "So what do you think about them?"

"Well, I myself like that Chat Noir boy. He reminds me a lot of an old superhero I read about. And Ladybug is an inspiration to all. Judging by the costume you bought, I'm guessing you're a fan of her too, dear."

"Yeah of course, they're awesome, but what do you think of Queen Bee?" Chloe said, getting more and more anxious.

"Oh well, Queen Bee isn't a hero, dear." he said matter-of-factually.

Shock struck Chloe's mind. "What? How could you say that?" she said as she leapt from her chair. "Queen Bee is single handedly cleaning up the northside of Paris. You can actually walk in St. Augustine at night without being mugged because of her."

"Chloe, settle down," he said, trying to calm his daughter. "I know from the outside what she does might seem heroic, but when you look into it, she's making things worse. I know that St. Augustine and Trenes were bad areas, but there's a reason why police don't lock up every crook in those neighborhoods. If they did, criminals would move out of those places and would cause trouble somewhere else. So we allow for crime to run mostly unchecked in those areas so that rest of Paris can live in peace. All they have to do is avoid those areas, and everything is fine. However, now that Queen Bee has gone and launched her one-man war on crime, all of Paris is being hit with a massive crime wave. If you want, there was a fascinating article written in today's paper about it." He held up the newspaper in question.

"Excuse me, father, I'm going to my room," Chloe said, making her way to her room, with the newspaper in hand. Chloe landed face first in her bed and groaned into her mattress.

A small bee-like creature flew toward her. "What's the matter, my Queen?" it said.

"Life's so unfair, Pollen. I've been fighting crime for six weeks, and almost nobody knows about who I am, and the only people who do know think I'm making thing worse," she said.

"Everything is going to turn out fine. Are you ready for your lesson today, your majesty?"

"Ugh, can't we skip your lesson of the day just once? I've done forty-two of them," Chloe said turning onto her back.

"Firstly, nice math. Secondly, you know the rules. Every Miraculous holder has to fulfill their side of the contract or they lose their power," Pollen said, lying directly to her master's face.

"This sucks. I wonder what Ladybug and Chat Noir have to put up with. Fine, let's get this over with."

"Today's lesson is about shame," Pollen said in her teacher voice.

"Shame? Well that's easy. I'm not ashamed of anything. I've never been more proud of myself," she said with a pleased look on her face.

"Shame isn't born from the absence of pride, but from its presence. Your majesty, you've spent all this time building up being Queen Bee that anyone tearing you down is going to hurt you much more than it should. I implore you to remember it's not all about you."

"Are we done?" Chloe asked.

"Do you have a lesson you've learned today, my queen?" the bee creature asked. A part of Pollen wondered just how much of her lessons flew in one ear and out the other with this girl.

"Yeah, people are selfish ingrates who don't care about the hard work others do for them," Chloe said.

"I know you were just taking out your frustrations with not being seen as a hero, so I will allow that passive-aggressive remark to count as a lesson," Pollen said.

"Thanks, but I think I need to go on the offensive for once," Chloe said.

Pollen watched as her master went to her computer and began to type away. "What are you doing?"

"Research."

* * *

A tall, dark skinned woman exited her work and walked down the busy Paris streets. "Jessica Moore?" a voice behind her said. Before she had a chance to respond she was whisked into the air. Jessica shrieked as she watched the ground grow further and further away from her. She didn't stop her shrieking until they landed on a roof.

Jessica collapsed and started to breathe heavily. "Queen Bee?" the woman gasped between breaths.

"Hi... Umm... I am Queen Bee, and I would like to have a word with you," Chloe said.

"Don't kill me! It's one article. I have a cat and if-"

"Wow wow wow, ease up. I'm not here to kill you; I'm here to talk to you," she said, offering the woman her hand. "I'd give you my handkerchief, but I didn't think you'd start crying."

"Really? I guess you've read the article," she said.

"No, I just like grabbing random people of the street for no good reason," she said while inspecting her nails.

"So? Um... What do you want to talk about?" Jessica said.

"Oh you know, boys, the weather, and why you don't like superheroes," she said as she began to pace around the scared woman.

"I - I don't hate superheroes," she said as she kept turning to keep Chloe in her sight.

"Oh really," Chloe said as she walked behind the woman and grabbed a newspaper from the floor. "Then explain this garbage."

"My article isn't about how I hate superheroes, it's about how you're causing more harm than good," she said. The switch in the conversation to her article seemed to awaken a passion in her eye. "I like Ladybug and Chat Noir, but you're just causing trouble."

"Come on, you can't be seriously blaming a crime wave on me how do we even know if it's my fault?" she said. "For all we know it could be something totally unrelated."

"You only read the first paragraph of the article," the woman said with a deadpan expression.

"Well how could I? This article makes me look like a total screw-up," she said, tossing the paper at her.

"If you had, you would've seen the annotations to the other articles I wrote," she said. "Over the past three weeks I've been tracking the local gang activity and turf wars. When I noticed the gangs that normally hang around St. Augustine were moving out quickly, I called a few contacts to see why and they all blame you for it. By cleaning up the streets you've caused criminals to flee to other places, thus unintentionally causing an uptick in crime."

"What about Ladybug and Chat Noir? They fight crime and you don't report about crimewaves they cause," she said.

"Again, this was covered in the article," she said. "Firstly, those two mostly fight supervillains."

"Okay, you can't blame me for there not being enough psychos to go around. Plus, I've tried to help them but by the time I get there, they've already handled the situation."

"Secondly, when they don't fight supervillains they're rescuing people from accidents. From the data I've gathered over the few months that those two have been active they haven't caused a spike in crime," she said.

"Well, can you cut me some slack! I didn't mean to cause trouble," she said. How was she supposed to know that fighting crime would cause an increase in it? "I mean, I've been doing a lot of good... can't you report on that? I mean, I have brought down the crime in one neighborhood."

"Sorry kid, it's a journalist's job to report the truth, and as long as you are causing trouble I have to report on it."

Chloe straightened her back as she walked towards the edge. "Well, fine then. I hope you enjoy getting down from here," she said, as she leapt off the rooftop and began to swing away.

* * *

**Queen Bee Attacks Journalist**

"If I had known you were going to confront the reporter like that, I would have stopped you," Pollen said as she sat on her dollhouse furniture, eating her breakfast.

"She deserved it," Chloe grumbled.

"You know that by the end of the day you'll understand why I said 'I told you so,'" Pollen muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chloe said, glaring at the bug.

"This is going to blow up in your face," she said, playing with her nectar-covered toast.

"Whatever. The limo is waiting! Let's go before we're late," she said as she grabbed her bag from the floor.

* * *

Jessica looked down at her article. Had her first front page story been worth angering a superhero?

"You know this could have serious consequences for not just you but the whole paper," a man said startling the young woman.

Taking a moment to compose herself Jessica said."I know, but she's a threat to public safety."

"Yes, and you've gone and pointed a target on your back after she came at you once, he said rubbing the side of his head. No doubt a headache about to start. "God, why did I let you talk me into running that story."

Jessica sighed. "Well we can't take it back now the paper is already printed. Everything is going to be alright right?" she asked hoping for some positivity.

"Sure as long as the person can take criticism well, isn't known for lashing out at their detractor, and hasn't had a history of violence. Good luck getting home tonight, kid," the man said chuckling to himself.

* * *

"Mademoiselle, your father will be expecting you at the Gala at six-thirty tonight," Jean-Luc said from the doorway.

"Yes, yes, is the dress I ordered here yet?" she said, while getting fussed over by her hair and makeup people.

"Yes, mademoiselle, Monsieur Agreste has truly outdone himself."

Chloe took a moment to look herself over with her small hand mirror before turning to her servants. "Good, now place the dress on the rack and leave." Once the servants left, Chloe got up from her seat and walked over to the dress. While it wasn't yellow, the cyan dress still was a work of art.

Pollen flew out of her dollhouse with a phone in tow. "Get ready to come up with an excuse to leave early, I have a feeling like you're going to be fighting your first akumatized victim tonight," Pollen said.

"You're overreacting! Everything is going to be fine," Chloe said as she finished putting on her dress. "So, how do I look?"

"Great, as always," she said, giving her master a strained smile. "Call me a pessimist, but I'll keep watching my phone for any akuma attacks."

"Whatever. Have fun in the car tonight," she said, watching her kwami enter her purse.

* * *

A man in a dark suit and a silver mask entered a dark room filled with butterflies. He stood in the middle of the room searching for negative emotions. "Ah, fear, paranoia, and dread! What wonderful emotions!" he said. He reached out as a white butterfly flew into his palm. Dark energy flowed into the butterfly turning it from white to purple. The man release the butterfly as it flew through out the city to an office building to a nervous woman looking over her article. The butterfly entered the woman's newspaper as a voice rang through her head.  **"You've poked a sleeping bear and now you don't know when she'll come for her revenge. My name is Hawk Moth, take this akuma and defeat your tormentor. All I ask in return is for Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses.**

* * *

The gala was held at a recital hall in downtown. The entire place was so gaudy. The hall was filled with terrible drawings of firefighters helping their community with no real rhyme or reason for their placement. They somehow managed to place a firetruck on the lawn, obscuring the great view of the city. The room was filled with men and women in cheap suits and dresses. Their jewelry was only worth a couple hundred euro.

Chloe stood next to her father as guests arrived, most of whom worked for the Parisian fire department or the fire department charity. They greeted their guests throughout most of the night. The fake smiling was starting to hurt her cheeks and her back was killing her from standing so long. Chloe was about five seconds away from asking for a break when a certain boy came to the front of the line.

"Chloe? Is that you?" Adrien said. The young man was dressed in one of his father's suits. Though he was still young, he cut a rather impressive figure.

All the pain in her cheeks, back and feet faded as he approached and the smile Chloe had been faking for the better part of an hour softened into a more genuine one. Chloe rushed over and gave him a hug. "Oh Adri-kins, I had no idea you were going to be here!"

"My father is the is the biggest backer for this charity. Didn't you know?" he said, breaking free of her hug.

"Oh forgive me, Adrien, my boy, I must have completely forgotten to mention that to Chloe," the Mayor said, trying his best to feign ignorance. "Speaking of Chloe, it seems like she could use a break. Would you mind keeping my daughter company for a little bit."

"Sure thing," Adrien said, offering his hand to Chloe. The two walked away not before Chloe could mouth a quick thank-you to her father.

"So, your father donates to this charity?" she said, as they made their way over to drinks table.

"Yeah, he's really busy so he asked me to come and give a speech tonight."

"Don't worry! You'll kill this speech, I'm sure of it," she said, nudging him in the arm. The two laughed as an awkward pause settled in.

Adrien looked at her as she looked at him, neither really knowing what to say. "Ah... you look nice in that dress," he blurted out.

"Thanks, your dad made it. You look nice in that suit. Let me guess... your dad made it?" she said bluntly.

"Yeah, he can make me a suit, but he can't come to this dinner," he said bitterly, looking away from her.

"Hey now, no pouting! I'd rather have you here then your dad anytime of day. Plus, responsibility looks good on you, just like about everything else, Mister Agreste," she said, managing to coax a smile out of him.

The two began to walk the room talking to random passersby. "Yeah, I guess we're both having to take on more responsibility. How was playing hostess for the evening?"

"Ask me tomorrow when I get out of these heels. My feet are killing me," she whined half-playfully, half-earnestly.

"Would you like to rest? I could get you another drink. I'm sure your dad put us next to one another for the seating arrangements," he said.

A devious smile spread across her face as Chloe lead Adrien to the dance floor. "Sure, but first I want to grab a quick - damn it," she said, as Pollen's ringtone played. "Excuse me a moment, I need to take this."

Looking down at her phone, she saw a text: Chloe, a villain is attacking, you have to go. The city needs you, the reporter you scared is calling out Queen Bee.

Chloe grimaced. She looked to Adrien, the text, and then back to Adrien. Chloe sighed and put the phone away. "Where were we?" she asked, as new text rang out, one after the other.

"Do you need to get that?" he asked, as her phone kept ringing.

"No, just let me turn this off," she said, reaching into her purse to turn off her phone. Just as she was about to, she saw what her kwami was telling her.

The city needs you.

This is your moment.

What would Ladybug do?

Chloe winced, turning back to Adrien. "Sorry Adrien, I have to go to the bathroom. I'll meet you at the table," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Okay, Chloe, all you have to do is sneak out of here, she thought to herself. Making her way to the bathroom, Chloe looked around for a window. She saw an open one at the top of the wall. Come on Chloe, you can do this! Ladybug would do it. Chloe took off her shoes and climbed onto the dirty bathroom sink. She quickly tossed one of her shoes out the window as the door to the bathroom opened to reveal an overweight, red-haired woman.

The woman saw her on the counter clutching a shoe in her hand, looking like a deer in headlights.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds as an awkward pause filled the room. "Leave," she hissed to the woman. As soon as the bathroom door was closed she tossed her other shoe out the window and leapt up to the window. She grabbed onto the ledge with her hands and used her bare feet to scurry out the window.

Chloe looked down at the hard pavement below where her shoes were and scrunched up her face before taking the plunge. Chloe managed to flip in the middle of the air and land on her feet; the shock from the landing coursed through her entire body. She gingerly put on her shoes and went looking for her kawmi.

* * *

Jessica, now calling herself the Wordsmith, looked like a harpy made of newspapers. She was going on and on about her being terrorized or some other nonsense as she flew around her office building.

"Listen to me, citizens of Paris! I come to you with dire news! A superhero calling herself Queen Bee has been ruining Paris. Any and all dissent against the mad queen is met with swift retribution. Yesterday I published a news article about how she's causing a crime wave, and she attacked me for it! I have no doubt the fiend is on her way to silence me here!. However tonight I'm not so powerless. For you see... ahhh!"

Whatever the Wordsmith was going to say was cut off when she was pulled by the leg to the ground. "Will you cut it out with the cheesy dialogue! What's up with you people? It's like once you get akumatized, you think it's time to ham it up as much as possible. Or does Hawk Moth just have a thing for the overly dramatic?" Queen Bee said. Turning to the crowd below she added, "Don't worry folks the - oh, damnit - Queenly Queen Bee will handle this."

"I won't live in fear of you anymore, Queen Bee! You can't silence your critics!" Wordsmith said. Her pages around her leg flew away and reassembled free of their binding.

"Fear? I've known you were alive for 24 hours! I take it back! Hawk Moth's not the drama queen, you are." Queen Bee let out her frustrations while dodging Wordsmith's attacks. Think, Chloe! Staying on the defensive isn't going to work. I have to go on the offensive.

"You want to fight? Let's fight! Give it your best shot." The two began a back and forth with one trying to hit the other without being hit themself. Queen Bee's top kept Wordsmith's attacks at bay, but Wordsmith was too far away to be lassoed again.

This isn't working. I need to get her in close. She's afraid of me, so she isn't going to come in close unless she's got a chance of hitting me... but my top scares her away. Chloe retracted her spinning top and put it back on her belt. She got into a boxing stance and gave her the biggest, smuggest grin she could manage.

The two went back to their earlier game of chicken. Each time Wordsmith would try hit Bee with her pages, Queen Bee would dodge at the last moment, with every flyby getting closer to hitting her. Queen Bee began to pant as her movements were getting less and less graceful. She had given up leaping out of the way after the first few strikes, and instead begun to bob and weave for her life.

"Ha. Is that all you've got? I-I thought you were a hero! " Wordsmith said, while coming up from her latest pass.

**"Good, good Wordsmith, you have her right where you want her. Show the world the coward she really is!"** Hawk Moth telepathically voiced his approval.

"Oh, I'm just getting started," Queen Bee said, panting on the ground.

Wordsmith dove down once again, ready to land the finishing blow. She came down ready to end this when at the last moment, Queen Bee yelled "  **Venom!**  ", activating her special attack. Queen Bee's fist started to glow, and Wordsmith was unable to get out of the way fast enough before Queen Bee stung her.

Wordsmith fell to the ground, her face in the gravel. "Ha! You thought a loser like you had me on the ropes! I was faking it the whole time. You're so much of a coward that the only way to win is to get you to come in close, so I could counter with my venom sting." Queen Bee began to walk towards her downed enemy, a haughty look on her face. "I wonder... after I beat you, do you think you'll be forced to write a retraction? I mean, after all, I did save your life."

Chloe began to give the prone woman a once-over, trying to spot where the akuma was. With no real idea which sheet of paper held the thing, she leaned down ready to start ripping through every single page. "You really couldn't make this easy for me, could you?" she mumbled.

As Chloe began to pick a sheet to start with she was tackled to the ground as Wordsmith started to hit her with her wings. "Ah! How are you still moving? You should be paralyzed."

"Oh, I am, or rather that page is. It's going to take a lot more stings to stop me?"

Shocked, Chloe managed to kick Wordsmith off of her and stumble to her feet. Taking out her top, she began to swing away.

**"After her, Wordsmith! She's used her power! Once she's used it she will transform back into civilian form after a few minutes."** Hawk Moth said.

Crap. Crap. Crap. I'm such an idiot. I saw that she was able to manipulate individual papers and didn't realize that my venom would be useless. Think Chloe, all you have to do is beat a villain before you transform back and without your one unique superpower. And on top of that, you need to find the akumatized page that is hidden among several other pages. All you need to do is hit her with an attack that's so fast, so powerful, that has such an area of effect that it destroys the akumatized page in less then five minutes, she thought to herself. I've got it!

"What's the matter, not going to fight me with your power running low?" Wordsmith mocked.

Queen Bee kept swinging from telephone pole to telephone pole. She ran as Wordsmith kept trying to tackle her from the side.

Wordsmith managed to hit her, tossing her onto a nearby roof. "Y - you know for a superhero, you aren't that good at the whole hero thing. I've never seen Ladybug run from a fight."

Queen Bee kept running for her life. She leapt high into the sky as Wordsmith chased after her. "I wasn't running away from you, I was running toward something else." As Wordsmith tried to hit her, Queen Bee lassoed her again and pulled her to the ground. As the two crashed to the ground, Queen Bee got to her feet.

Bee sprinted over towards the firetruck on the front lawn of the gala. "Hey, guess what? Tomorrow's headline is Queen Bee Takes Down Her First Supervillain ." She said, as she let loose the hose at full pressure and watched as the pages began to be torn away from her. A purple butterfly flew away as she killed the water to the hose.

Queen Bee approached the soaked woman. "Hey, so can we talk?"

"What? You? How did I get here?" the woman said, spitting up water.

"You were akumatized until I freed you. Pretty messed up, huh? Look, do you want to make up and be friends?" Queen Bee said, offering the woman her hand.

"Friends? With you?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, I mean we could totally be friends. I could save the day, and you could write all about it," she said, giving the older woman a huge grin.

"No, you idiot. You hit me, soaked me with water, and left me stuck on a roof for hours. I'm never going to be your friend. I swear, I won't stop writing about you until all of Paris hates you!" the woman yelled.

"Yeah, well..." whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sound of her Miraculous about to power down. "I'm not going to hurt you for your stupid articles, so you don't need to become a weird bird monster," she said, rather hurriedly, as she leapt away from the soaked woman.

Chloe's transformation ended as soon as she rounded the corner of the gala hall. "Ugh. That sucked. Now I've got an archenemy I can't punch."

"That's life my queen, some days you're going to lose more than you gain," Pollen said, flying beside her. "I'm heading back to the car."

"Wait," Chloe said, before the bee kwami flew away. "I've got my lesson of the day."

"Oh? I was planning on letting you off the hook for a lesson today because of how busy it's been, but if you've got a lesson for me, go ahead," Pollen said, looking rather surprised that her queen actually had a lesson ready without being prompted.

"Today I learned that I shouldn't brag while fighting and I should wait until after I've kicked their butts," she said, looking rather pleased with herself.

Really... that's the lesson you learned? Pollen thought. Take the win Pollen, at least it's a lesson in humility. "Well done, my queen. Now, hurry back to your party," she said, forcing a smile to her face.

"The party? Adrien! Crap! I left him alone!" she cried, running off towards the entrance. Chloe made her way back inside, nearly bumping into her father. "Oof. Sorry Daddy, I had to get some air. Have you seen Adrien?"

"Adrien? I'm sorry my dear, the chief of police called me away. There was an akuma attack. I'm sure he's around here somewhere," he said, giving his daughter a gentle squeeze.

* * *

"Well done, Adrien, your speech was very gracious. I'm sure your father will be pleased," Nathalie said, walking three steps behind him in the large, empty house.

"Thanks. I'm going to retire for the night. Have a good night," he said, as he walked into his room, exhausted after the long night. "Ugh. That night lasted way too long."

"At least you don't have school tomorrow," a tiny black cat creature said, making his way over to his cheese.

"Yeah, but I've got a huge project ahead of me. Who the heck was that girl?" he said.

Plagg grinned at his master. "All I can tell you is that it's the Bee Miraculous holder, and that she probably calls herself Queen Bee."

Adrien looked up at his kwami. "Thanks, I thought I was going to have to spend all day researching, but that helps a lot," he said.

"Really? All I gave you was a name," he said, looking rather surprised with his master.

"Yeah, I mean... I know she's a good guy because she fought that supervillain, and she's got a lot of skills to handle that on her own. I'm fine with that much. It's about as much as I know about Ladybug after all," he said staring up at his ceiling. "Queen Bee, huh?"

* * *

"Marinette, there's a man here for you," Marinette's mother called out.

Marinette made her way down to find an elderly man waiting for her. "Hello, Miss Dupain-Cheng, there's a matter I'd like to discuss with you."

"I'll take my leave," her mother said, leaving the two alone.

When her mother left, Marinette looked to the man and asked "Can I help you?"

"Yes, or rather... Ladybug can," he said. Before she could lie to him, he raised his hand to silence her. "It's alright. I know your secret. I was the one who gave you the Miraculous in the first place. In fact, you can come out now, Tikki." As if on cue, the Ladybug-looking kwami came out of her pocket.

"Master Fu, it's great to see you! I missed you." she said, giving the old man a polite bow.

"As have I. Unfortunately the reason I've come to you is to retrieve a missing Miraculous from someone who shouldn't have one."

"Hawk Moth?" she asked. If this man could give her a lead on her archenemy, she'd take it.

"No... well, yes, but he can wait. For a few weeks I've been keeping tabs on the new holder of the Bee Miraculous. I see how she used her power, and unfortunately... she's causing more harm than good. I need you to retrieve her Miraculous from her. You need to stop Queen Bee."

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review it really helps.


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